This article was published on: 02/01/2006
 
BUYER'S GUIDE: Multimedia Marketing

BY MICHAEL ANTONIAK

Winning Pitches

When prospective sellers invite Jeff Hoffman, president of Hoffman Realty Group in Folsom, Calif., to do a listing presentation, they get a really big show: a PowerPoint multimedia presentation that includes audio and video. “When I talk about how I’ll market the home, I click on a link and the commercial for Talking House plays,” he explains. “Then, sellers can hear an audio file I’ve recorded for Talking House describing their home.” (Talking House lets consumers tune their car radio to hear information about a listing when they pull up in front.)

Before the presentation, Hoffman uses a digital camcorder to record testimonials from past clients in the sellers’ neighborhood, then uploads the video files to his notebook and links them to the presentation. “Video really brings testimonials to life,” he says. Most important, he adds, his presentations almost always capture the client.

Hoffman’s enthusiasm suggests multimedia content is destined for use by a much wider share of real estate professionals. “I don’t know of too many using multimedia yet,” he says. “But it’s not hard to use with today’s software. If you can copy and paste, you can make it work.”

Plus, notes Paul Young, a salesperson with Coldwell Banker West in Lakewood, Colo., “We’re dealing with a generation who grew up on TV. Audio and video holds their interest as I explain my marketing plan and how it will work for them.”

Not everyone wants a high-tech presentation, so Melissa Deputy, a sales associate with Prudential New Jersey Properties in Flemington, N.J., offers prospects the choice of a PowerPoint presentation on her notebook or a printout of the slides. “Some people, especially older home owners, aren’t comfortable in front of a computer,” she says.

For those who want the whole enchilada, Deputy’s presentation launches with a photo of the sellers’ home and includes real estate graphics, animated fadeouts, and a mockup that showcases how the house would appear on REALTOR.com.

“A computer presentation demonstrates that I know how to use technology,” Deputy says, “and shows that the latest technology will be used to market their home.”

Presentation products primer

Here’s a rundown of the tools for bringing your presentations to life.

• Notebook computers. Look for larger displays and multimedia support to seamlessly run video and animation segments without interruption. Add a wireless mouse and you can run the show without sitting directly in front of the computer.

• Presentation software. All packages include libraries of clip art; transitions, such as fadeouts; animation; and audio. Solutions for the real estate industry provide specialized content or templates you can quickly customize. Features that allow you to save the presentation to disk, create a PDF, or publish it to the Web give you more options for how it’s used.

• Digital camcorders. With a digital camcorder equipped for output via USB 2.0 or FireWire (IEEE 1394), adding video can be as easy as uploading a photo.

• Video projectors. Projection systems offer an affordable and portable solution for presentations to groups. They connect directly to a PC or other video source and project the picture on a wall or a screen. If your company regularly makes presentations in the office, also consider installing a high-resolution TV or flat-screen monitors. These, too, can display output from a computer.

• Multimedia handhelds. Compact handheld devices store and display photos, video, and music. They’re a mobile solution for presentations and content, but the screen’s size is usually too small for shared viewing. You can connect these devices to a computer or video display for playback, however.